Welcome to Common Gunsense

I hope this blog will provoke some thoughtful reflection about the issue of guns and gun violence. I am passionate about the issue and would love to change some misperceptions and the culture of gun violence in America by sharing with readers words, photos, videos and clips from articles to promote common sense about gun issues. Many of you will agree with me- some will not. I am only one person but one among many who think it's time to do something about this national problem. The views expressed by me in this blog do not represent any group with which I am associated but are rather my own personal opinions and thoughts.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Baring all for guns

While searching for the video from last night's Jon Stewart show about Open Carry activists, I ran across this one, showing a New Hamshire woman going topless but carrying a gun around her waist, to make a point. More than the bare breasts and the openly displayed gun, the scary thing to me was the open hostility towards the police officer who was attempting to arrest the woman. To his credit, he handled the situation with much patience and calm. I guess in New Hamshire, where Open Carry is O.K., it is more of a concern that the woman was topless than that she was carrying a loaded gun. The crowd wasn't buying any of it. In the video, the group seems to be called "Liberty". If you use that name, you can hide behind it to commit all sorts of acts of disobedience.

Just at the term "liberty" is used, so is the word "Constitution" used to hide behind acts of violence or threats thereof. The Open Carry folks are becoming more and more bold. But leave it to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show to find the irony in it all. Wyatt Cenac, "reporter" for the show, interviews Paul Helmke, Brady Campaign President and John Pierce, founder of opencarry.org. As I have written before, April 19th is the day these people have chosen to display their guns and make a point about defending the second amendment and the Constitution. Their view is that the current administration has somehow violated the Constitution by passing Health Care legislation and just by having been elected. They are ready to defend the Constitution against a Constitutional scholar and lawyer who was elected to protect and defend the Constitution. Quoting from the opencarry.org website: " A right unexercised is a right lost." In contrast to President Obama, the Open Carry folks choose to defend their rights by threatening and intimidating with their openly carried guns in public. It's time for the rest of us to exericise our first amendment right to speak out against this potentially dangerous point of view before something tragic happens.

1 comment:

Good thoughts. I read something John Stuart Mill (everyone's favorite stuffy 19th century British philosopher) wrote in his essay "On Liberty": something to the effect that, in deciding what liberties are permissible, there is a "harm principle", in which the only justification for interfering with the liberty of an individual, against her will, is to prevent harm to others.

Against this standard, was the naked lady harming anyone? Do open carriers harm anyone? Concealed carriers?

Playing the devil's advocate, here. I actually do think these actions result in harm to others.

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